Federal appeals court revives Wikimedia suit against NSA News
Federal appeals court revives Wikimedia suit against NSA

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] on Tuesday allowed a lawsuit [text, PDF] by Wikimedia [website] to proceed against the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website]. The suit claims that the NSA’s use of Upstream violates the First and Fourth Amendments. Upstream is a surveillance program authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [materials]. In 2015 Wikimedia challenged the government’s use of Upstream as it stored and reviewed some communications by Wikimedia. The appeals court vacated and remanded an earlier decision denying the suit on the basis of standing. The court held Wikimedia could move forward in its Upstream claim but not in its Dragnet claim, which was broader and alleged that the NSA stored and reviewed substantially all communications entering and exiting the US.

In 2015 a judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed [JURIST report] a lawsuit [text, PDF] filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] and other human rights organizations challenging surveillance by the NSA. Judge TS Ellis III granted the government’s motion to dismiss, finding, “any alleged burdensome measures taken [by plaintiffs] as a result of subjective fear of surveillance are not fairly traceable to Upstream surveillance” and that common law precedent dictates that “a threatened injury must be certainly impending to constitute injury in fact and that allegations of possible future injury are not sufficient” for relief.